Libra: Scales of Research
by sadistic dreamkiller
Summary: .:OrochimaruxHinata:. Because you can't stop the addiction.


Bet you clicked on this only because you saw it's OrochimaruxHinata, lol. Anyway, hope it's not that bad.

What you need to know is that this would be a bigger mouthful than you expect if you're assuming this is a light fic. Well, I'm telling you now, so you can skip this. It's extreme Angst and Drama (note the depressing pair), it's written from an interviewer and interviewee point of view, and will have long rants in the author notes.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. I do own this fiction. You are not to laugh at it. … pfffft, keehee…

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**Lording the Research**  
Foreword: Konoha Fall

"_I watch the world fall to the dark side of the moon, I feel there's nothing I can do…"_

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Walking down the rocky steps of the Leaf Village dungeons made me realize the nasty living conditions reserved for the worst of prisoners we take. The moment I stepped onto the landing, the rancid stench of human waste hit me hard and filled my nostrils that I had to take a few extra seconds adapting to it because it was so bad. And then when I continued down the hallway, people banged against the steel doors, trying to catch my attention. Some were screaming mad, particularly because they were. This was a prison also used as an asylum for the simple reason of only making life harder for the actual captives. Leaf had its secrets.

The lighting in this place was nice, albeit some busted bulbs, and the good ones having spiders spin their webs upon them. The footsteps of the two ANBU soldiers behind me reverberated through the long corridor as they followed me, pushing back the bony hands of those who managed to slip them through the narrow bars on the small window of the doors. Every now and then there would be a drawn face peeking out with beckoning eyes, all with the same, tired expression. I would, of course, ignore them as I had been told before I signed the permit to allow me entrance into this personal hell.

My journey takes me to another of the heavy metal doors, one with moss growing from the water dripping down the granite blocks beside it. It might not even be moss, but I don't bother trying to inspect.

One of the men stepped forward and used a series of hand seals to release the lock, swinging the panel open inwards, casting light onto the stone cold floor of the cell. For the first time I saw the prisoner I came to see, and she looked up in surprise, beautiful red eyes staring back at me through cracked glasses, her clothes torn and dirty. I was told that since their hideout had been invaded and they had been taken to Leaf, they weren't treated as ordinary prisoners. Because they weren't.

"Get me out of here!" she screamed, breaking the silence and getting up running towards us.

She accidentally collides with my shoulder because I'm standing motionless in the doorway, ignoring me and rushing to get away. She manages to pass by me, but her freedom is short-lived as the ANBU who accompanied me catches her before she could go even three steps from the door.

"Let me go!"

She starts sobbing, and I slowly turn around with a sigh. The two men had a firm grasp on her arms, and she weakly sinks down on her knees, begging for mercy. I surmise she could no longer fight from all the torture, treatment, torture, the cell designed to sap chakra, torture, and did I mention, torture? No one down here could use or do anything chakra related, so taijutsu specialists were at the advantage. Aside from that, Ibiki was and is still ruthless when it came to his specialty. Poor girl.

"Don't worry," I say, resting a hand on my hip as I glanced at the clipboard in my other hand. The page in front had her picture stapled in the corner, taken when she first arrived. Still with the wound to her left cheek, her glasses had been broken when she was recorded, her flaming red hair was really unevenly styled, and she wasn't dead, so she was more fortunate than the other ninety-percent of the prisoners locked up here. I see her name at the other top corner, and I read up until her village. After knowing where she came from, I didn't need to know any more.

"So your name is Karin?"

The girl was hauled to her feet and forced to face me. She was tall, a little more than me, but she was hanging her head so I gently tip her chin up.

"Hey, I'm here to ask you simple questions–" she stiffened at this point "–not to interrogate you."

"You're with him," she whimpered, stepping away from me and struggling to free herself from the guards.

I hate people like this, they're hard to talk to. But I have to put up with it, because I had a job to do. I may be a jounin, but keeping that position is harder than most presume after the Fourth Great Ninja War. Yeah, it happened, and Leaf was almost destroyed in the process. Not much of us were left, the most compromised of chunnins and jounins, and the old farts who had enough experience under their wrinkles to flee and use their skills to hide. Genins and Academy students were massacred, including the ordinary villagers. And that was only here, we still don't know what happened in Sand or the others.

Let me put it this way, so you can better understand. Just over four years ago, Akatsuki attacked. It was soon found out that they were after Naruto, so we were able to keep him hidden from them. We sent him to Wave country, knowing it was them who we could trust. I was one of his handlers, and constantly, minute after minute, he would try to fight us and go back to the village to want to fight. It was a good thing Tenzou was with us and controlled him. We knocked him out after he escaped for the seventh time so it was easier to move him.

So yeah, that might be it. Of course, the guys in the black coats wouldn't take no for an answer and fought us. It wasn't even much of a fight, there were nine of them, including that Uchiha traitor, and we couldn't win. Hokage Tsunade wasn't here when that happened, so Akatsuki locked down the village and took control of it. That was the most horrible point in my life, and I kept hard not to be found out.

Within days, Leaf was turned into a melting pot of hell. No one could beat them, and if one of them was attacked, there were eight others who would massacre a hundred more innocent villagers. Most of us ninjas were traded off as slaves in the black market. It doesn't sound that bad, but I can tell you what I witnessed at one of those events.

That night had no moon, and I had decided to mingle with the crowd, changing most of my features that can tell anyone who I was, which wasn't much. I was part of a rebel group and we had heard of this selling of three highly known Leaf kunoichis at the edge of town. Lords and other high and mighty politicians would certainly send some of their underlings to the underground auctions. Owning someone powerful and treating them like a pet fed their ego, that I can understand.

As much as we hated our methods, a week before, we stole money and gold from outside the village to pull in as much as we could to be able to buy the freedom of who might be at center-stage on that day. It was dangerous, but we all decided that some chuunin would be the bidder. He was young, maybe sixteen or seventeen that time, and I think his name was Shino. His clan wore shades and jackets that hid their faces, so when he took them off, no one but his family would recognize who he was. Kakashi and I were supposed to use disguises and back him up.

When that fateful night rolled around and we entered the meeting place, a bar on a prostitute strip, it had been packed with people. We couldn't recognize anyone at all, and we kept to ourselves to avoid anyone discovering who we really were. There was this Akatsuki guy sitting on the counter, and I remember his huge scythe glinting every time it caught the light. He was watching as his partner tried calling everyone's attention.

It had been a little rowdy but when the first person was brought out, hands and arms tied to the bars of her cage, pretty mouth gagged tightly as she tried to scream, I immediately turned to look at Kakashi. He looked calm, but I know he was livid. It was Kurenai, and she was being introduced to everyone as a genjutsu specialist, who could make any of your fantasies come true. At that moment I had to remind my gray-haired companion not to draw any attention. Frankly, even though I wouldn't leave her there, I disliked Kurenai.

Plenty of numbers were shouted to the hooded man with strange eyes. It reached millions. The figures continued to rise, and then suddenly somewhere to the right, a woman place six. Everyone became apprehensive at that time, and then Shino challenged her with six and a half. It persisted that way until eight-point-two million, where the woman gave up. All three of us silently breathed a sigh of relief. One down, two to go.

But we knew our funds weren't going to last that long if they were placing the price that high. We only had approximately fifteen million, and half of that went to Miss Yuuhi already.

When the next person was rolled out, once again, I had to calm my companion. Haruno Sakura, bound and gagged like the one who came before her. Simply saying her name served as an introduction, and numbers started flying. That time Kakashi whispered in my ear that he swears he would kill them if this was over. We hadn't even had a chance to bid for her, because it started at ten million. The amount rose so high that it was mind blowing. Being the Hokage's apprentice, many holding grudges against her would have decided to take their revenge through this. Someone with long, white hair took her, and all three of us felt we had let her down.

And then there was a surprise waiting for us after Sakura was sold. Kakuzu, the Akatsuki guy with weird eyes, he announced that the next trade would be special. Two people. They were the Hyuuga sisters, Hanabi and Hinata.

Now, you see, we gave it a shot with what money we have left. And I wouldn't be interviewing people had we gotten them, because when we passed the person who bought the two on the way out, he smiled at me. I never forgot it, because I knew him well. He was Orochimaru in disguise, and I knew him no matter which body he was in.

That is the main reason that years after that incident, now that Konoha is picking itself up from the rubble and ashes, I was given the job to document what might be one of the strangest stories we found out. I was part of the puzzle, where it all started. And now I'm working my way through with all the witnesses who we could think of.

"Karin," I start once more, the moldy smell of the underground tunnels itching at my nose, "I'm not with Ibiki. As much as I want to, I'm not."

The pretty redhead still was apprehensive and didn't answer. I lost my temper and rolled my eyes away, pushing past the trio and walking back the way we came from.

"Take her with us," I ordered. She was a prisoner, meaning I didn't have to play nice anymore.

We're going to crack the case on where Orochimaru finally is, and with this guard of his, it will begin.

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**AN:** Experimental stage, so me need constructive criticism on my writing. Don't worry about length, chapters will be thrice longer.


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